A Longmont Power & Communication crew member works on a line Tuesday, March 19, 2013, after a driver crashed into a pole along Hygiene Road. No one was injured in the collision.
(Greg Lindstrom/Times-Call)

LONGMONT -- A pickup veered off Hygiene Road on Tuesday afternoon, struck a power pole and loosened a power line that snagged a bicycle atop the car of Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs, who was traveling behind the pickup.

Coombs said he was traveling east on Hygiene Road just east of 75th Street when a pedestrian waved for him to slow his car. At that moment, Coombs felt a rough torque on his car. The power line, which had been hanging about 8 feet above the pavement, had caught Coombs' bicycle, which was on a rack on top of the mayor's 2002 Saturn L200.

He said the collision with the line damaged his bike rack and the roof of his car.

"I was more worried about my bike than the car," said Coombs, who was wearing his cycling gear and was returning from what he described as "an epic morning of mountain biking" at Hall Ranch. He was not injured in the accident.

According to Trooper Anthony Tarantino of Colorado State Patrol, a white Toyota Tacoma traveling east veered off the south side of the road and struck a power pole at about 1:30 p.m.

Jim Wright, who was doing maintenance work at a nearby church, said he heard a thud and then a grinding sound.

"I came running out when I heard the crash and the grinding," he told the Times-Call.

He said he checked on the driver of the truck and that "there wasn't a scratch on him." He said the man told him that he had fallen asleep at the wheel.

Wright noted at the scene: "That's a heck of a way to meet your mayor."

Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs inspects his bike Tuesday, March 19, 2013, after it got caught on a power line along Hygiene Road. The line was hanging low after a driver crashed into a pole. No one was injured in the collision.
(Greg Lindstrom/Times-Call)

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